False Rumors About Oprah Winfrey That Spread Like Wildfire

Oprah Winfrey started life with a horrific and unbelievably tragic upbringing, and was able to break from her past and become one of the most famous and beloved talk show hosts of all time. Unsurprisingly, with so many years in front of the public eye, and being one of the most recognizable faces in the world, there is no shortage of rumors about Winfrey. And, in many cases, no matter what the truth may be, false stories about the famous interviewer spread faster than they can be debunked. 

Ever since her career took off in Chicago by turning a low-rated morning show into a hit and co-starring in Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple," for which she received an Oscar nomination. A year later, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" launched, and Winfrey became a daily guest in homes for a quarter of a century, during which she built a media empire. But, as one of the most recognizable people on the planet, Winfrey's name and visage became a target for supermarket tabloids and gossip hounds. From rumored loves to reportedly stabbing — or maybe even shooting — someone, the rumor mill made Winfrey's life as exciting as a soap opera, and just as real. 

In 2023, "The Color Purple" was remade into a musical starring Fantasia Barrino, Halle Bailey, Taraji P. Henson and Danielle Brooks. Oprah Winfrey served as a producer on the film, and while the new version of the story was a critical success, the reviews were overshadowed by a rumored problem between Henson and Winfrey. 

Making the media rounds to promote the movie, Henson spoke to Gayle King on SiriusXM and became emotional when discussing issues with pay disparity in the entertainment industry, saying, "I'm just tired of working so hard, being gracious at what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost." Henson went on to explain that studios are less willing to produce stories about people of color because those movies don't do well overseas, stating, "When it's time for us to go to bat, they don't have any money. They play in your face. And I'm just supposed to smile and grin and bear it."

Blitz Bazawule, director of "The Color Purple," was also on the show and backed up Henson's claim, revealing that he had to fight to cast his leading actors. Other Black actors and filmmakers, including Gabrielle Union, backed up Henson on social media. This also led to online claims that Henson was talking about Winfrey. Winfrey addressed the accusations, telling Entertainment Weekly, "Whenever I heard there was an issue or there was a problem... I would step in and do whatever I could to make it right." Henson flatly denied the gossip on "The Breakfast Club," saying, "I have such a love and a fondness for her... That was all fictitious [and] to draw a wedge between us" and called the online talk "disrespectful."

One of the oldest rumors about Oprah Winfrey is connected to her decades-long friendship with Gayle King. The two first met in 1976 when Winfrey was just 22 and working as the news anchor for WJZ-TV in Baltimore. King, then 21, was a production assistant at the station and found herself without a place to sleep when a snowstorm impeded her ability to get home. Winfrey offered to let King stay at her place, and the two have been pals ever since. Talking to Barbara Walters, Winfrey described King, saying, "She is the mother I never had. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don't know a better person."

Well before the internet came into being, Winfrey and King were rumored to be more than friends. Gossip of the two being lovers spread for years, and in 2010, the duo joked about it during an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." On a special episode that saw Winfrey and King on a camping trip in Yosemite, King joked, "Let's just add to that lesbian rumor" as they made their way into a camper for the night. Winfrey, joining in and playing it up for the crew, exclaimed, "Lesbian rumors!"

Despite the years of whispers and gossiping both on and offline, Winfrey and King are not lesbian lovers. King was married for 11 years and has two children, while Winfrey has been in a relationship with Stedman Graham since 1986. 

After Gayle King, Stedman Graham is the second-best-known relationship in Oprah Winfrey's life. The two met the same year Winfrey's show started and have been together ever since. As Winfrey detailed on her site, she first saw Graham walking around with his girlfriend, but the two officially met while visiting a friend who, sadly, was dying of AIDS. Despite her concerns that Graham was "a player," a concern her production team shared, Winfrey pursued Graham and, soon enough, they started dating. Graham made his first appearance on Winfrey's show in 1987, and in 1992, the couple announced their engagement, but, all these years later, they have yet to walk down the aisle. That hasn't stopped rumors that the wedding has indeed happened.

The gossip hit a new level in 2016 when the tabloid magazine Star featured a cover story claiming "Oprah & Stedman Dream Wedding!" The story spread across the internet, and, apparently, even within Winfrey's personal circle. The "A Wrinkle in Time" star took to X (then Twitter) to put an end to the wedding talk, telling the world, "6 people who know me well have called today congratulating me or surprised they weren't invited to my wedding. IT's NOT TRUE!!" Tabloid coverage led Winfrey and Graham to make a decision: they would stop going out in public together. Winfrey explained their thinking on "The Goop Podcast," saying, "I realized that every time there's a new photograph, there's a new story."

In 2017, Oprah Winfrey went on "The Rachel Ray Show" and was asked by a fan, "What's the craziest rumor you've ever heard about yourself?" Winfrey thought for a moment before responding, "That I stabbed Stedman and put him in the hospital." The rumor itself was first reported in the Chicago Sun-Times in May 1989 and written up as a blind item by gossip columnist Ann Gerber, who, as she explained to The Reader, had been hearing mumblings about the stabbing for a month. With nothing else juicy to type up for the Sunday edition of the paper, Gerber ran with the story, even though she couldn't get anyone to verify it. 

Sure enough, the story of Winfrey stabbing her boyfriend after finding him in bed with her hairdresser had everyone talking, but it wasn't true, and Winfrey wasn't happy. By Tuesday, the Sun-Times fired Gerber. At a press conference, Gerber defended her decision to write the rumor up, saying "If I made a mistake, it was in trying to help Oprah with her pain about the rumor..." before also laying the blame on her editor who, according to her, "did not choose to reject this story after hearing all the facts." Despite the story being retracted and the Sun-Times firing Gerber, the rumor continued to spread. Even the New York Times would mention it in an article about Winfrey later that year, but by that time, the tale had evolved, as these kinds of tales do, changing from a stabbing to a shooting.